Animal Sacrifice During Hajj in Sri Lanka

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Hajj in Sri Lanka is a time when pilgrims go to Mecca or celebrate it at home, sometimes sacrificing an animal as per Islamic rites, but there are underlying political ramifications

It’s Hajj season again. From all over Sri Lanka, a few thousand fortunate Muslims have already left to perform the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for those who can afford it, joining hundreds of thousands more in Mecca. The Hajj is considered the pilgrimage of Abraham and has been practised ever since the time of that prophet, peace be upon him.

But the time of Hajj is also significant to those who remain in their homes. According to Muslim belief, good deeds carried out in the first ten days of the month of Hajj bear great merit in the eyes of Allah. Aside from fasting, charity and reflecting on the Qur’an, a special good deed carried out by Muslims is the Uduhiyyah or the Hajj sacrifice.

In Sri Lanka where Muslims are a minority, the sudden rise of animal slaughter during Hajj has sometimes drawn the ire of Buddhists and attracted negative publicity over the years. This is especially significant now in a climate where certain political opportunists are spurring ethnic rivalry between Muslims and the Sinhalese.

Here in Sri Lanka animals are killed on a daily basis for meat, and this goes largely uncontested. The majority of Buddhists also eat meat, though many abhor beef. The beef industry is largely monopolised by Muslims and has always been a target for those seeking political gain.

Furores also arose in recent times in Sri Lanka over ritual sacrifice of animals in the Hindu Kovil of Munneswar, led by a senior minister, but backed by a faction of the Buddhist clergy. The sacrifice was allowed to go ahead despite protests as the penal code in no way prevents the slaughter of animals in the country.

The issue is not the slaughter of animals per se, but the graphic display of slaughter that can sometimes take place during Hajj, or other religious festivals that can be used by opportunistic forces to stir up trouble in the name of religion. And when Muslims themselves neglect to follow proper Islamic protocol in carrying out the sacrifice, the issue is only exacerbated.

Openly displaying the animal to be slaughtered, letting its dying cries be heard by neighbours and unhygienic disposal of waste matter is guaranteed to rub people up the wrong way. These practices are frowned upon in Islam in accordance with the Prophet Muhammad’s (may peace and blessings be upon him) example of respect for the faith and sentiments of non-Muslims. And of course hygiene is a central tenet of Islam (the Prophet is reported to have said ‘cleanliness is half of faith’). The above was highlighted in Friday sermons throughout the country on the Friday preceding Hajj.

Muslims must understand that religious obligations can still be fulfilled without hurting the feelings of non-Muslims (it’s probably better fulfilled that way), and non-Muslims must understand the significance of the act and the importance Islam places on animal rights. They should also not be led astray by misconceptions and political opportunists.

The Qur’an explicitly states that animals can be used for human benefit (Qur’an 40:79-80) and it stresses equally that animals have their own lives and existences that must be respected and honoured by man (Qur’an 6:38, 24:41). This may appear contradictory, but Islam teaches that all objects, from plants to stars, exist in submission to the will of Allah. And on Earth, man is the ‘vice-regent’ of Allah and can use the planet’s resources in accordance with Islamic law. This law is strict on preventing abuse however, and when it comes to animals, prohibits overworking, overburdening and the infliction of cruelty on them and allows hunting only for the sake of food.

Some claim the Islamic method of slaughtering animals is cruel. But in fact it is a humane and hygienic way of killing a beast. The cutting of the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck (the spinal cord is kept intact) prevents the flow of blood to the nerves that cause the sensation of pain in the brain (the animal struggles and writhes due to muscular contraction). All the blood is drained, blood being a medium for germs and bacteria, which ensures that the meat is clean and stays fresh far longer.

Before being slaughtered, the animal must be treated with kindness and given food and water; it is prohibited for instance, to sharpen a knife or to slaughter another animal in front of it.

The significance of the Hajj sacrifice is the commemoration and remembrance of the devotion of Abraham (peace be upon him). In a divinely inspired dream, Abraham saw himself sacrificing his oldest son Ismail to Allah. When he told this to Ismail, Ismail asked him to obey the command and said that he would be patient with the will of God. But when the blade descended upon Ismail’s neck, it failed to cut; Allah did not take the life of Ismail, providing a ram to be sacrificed in his stead.

This act of complete submission on the part of Abraham is remembered by Muslims worldwide by sacrificing a lamb, cow or another suitable animal. They keep one third of the meat for themselves, give one third to neighbours and friends and the final third to the poor, ensuring that no one goes hungry during the feast of Eid-Ul-Adha, the Hajj festival.

The day starts with a congregational prayer in the mosque. Muslims celebrate by visiting family and friends, exchanging gifts and remembering and thanking Allah for His blessings. The sacrifice of an animal is purely a measure of faith, as the Qur’an says “it is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him.”(22:37).

yah, we better teach all carnivorous animals also to become vegetarian. may be better try to plant both in hot and cold desert some plants and if that doesn’t work better give citizenship in sri lanka for those people.

Well written. It looks like if its properly practiced by Muslims – some of the upheavals should not arise.

For my knowledge, during this ritual – are children and the family made to watch his (I presumed is the priests and the fatherly figure of the family who would do this act), or is done in a secluded manner?

No. Family members are not ‘made’ to watch it. But they can if they want to. The person paying for the sacrifice would normally carry it out. But they can also get someone else to carry out the actual slaughter for them

Every one fears death, every one fears punishment,every one loves his or her own life, take you yourself as an example and do not kill, do not hurt .Humans have made various stories and theories to justify killing of animals,because they want to please their taste buds. How ever both humans and animals are born in the same way they both live due to same reasons they both undergo getting sick getting old finally the unavoidable death.It is true that to be fully vegetarian is very difficult but animals are not responsible to satisfy human greed from their flesh.what happens is human as the most advanced animal has found some answeres in religions which are made by man for the benifit of man because he feels guilty in his conscience when afflicting terrible pain to innocent animals who cannot communicate in our languages to explain their plight. We as humans are actually devastating their lives and families using our superior power and unlimited cruelty.

Well written article. Uduhiyyah is an obligation on every (financially able) Muslim, though it is not a must like the daily five-times prayers or fasting during Ramadhan. Seven persons could contribute towards the Qurban (animal sacrifice) of one bull or cow. If the sacrificial animal is a goat or sheep, the cost has to be borne by a single person. I hope the article will help remove some of the misconceptions by non-Muslims.

slaughtering animal during Haj is not an unusual practice. Everyday thousands of cows and goats are killed in Sri Lanka for human consumption ( 90% of meat products particularly chicken are consumed by non muslims). Other days people has to pay for their beef and lamb and during Haj poor people are given free beef and lamb by those who could afford to give free for poor people.

This is not a ritual like sacrificing to God, the flesh is given not to GOd but to poor people who are protein malnourished. If some one is against to this practice then what we should do is to bring an act of Parliament banning killing of animals for human consumption that will effectively make our nation a vegetarian nation. even our five star hotels should respect the law and take all kinds of animal products, chicken beef and lamb away from their kitchen.

Targeting Muslims during Haj while the whole nation except very few thriving and enjoying chicken beef and lamb is not fair.

The situation actualy is laughable. We are talking somuch about cruality to animals when even human beings in Srilanka are not spared from this fate today. We are talking about animals slautered for human consumption when there are enough of instances when humans are slaughtered and left arround to be consumed by dogs, crows etc.
So lets show pitty and mercy to our fellow human beings first and then everything will fall into place.

Typical oxymoron – killing to do good. BUT you are still killing! What a self-centered concept? Look at the concept of Jihad – you kill “others” so that “you” can go to heaven! Not sure why no one wakes up and says “What the heck are we doing?”

Did you forget one can win noble prize for PEACE after killing innocent human? European Union fought many war for wrong reason and killed millions of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc but they still got noble prize for PEACE. Then why you are oppose killing of animals even though they are made for us. Ooops I forgot, they are animal, human can be killed but animals, no way. I support you.

I am sorry to say, that you have not understood Islam. No where is it mentioned in Islam, that one will go to heaven for killing people. In fact it says that people who kill others without any justifiable reason will end up in the hell fire. But if someone dies while defending himself, or others, or his country for the sake of God when attacked by his enemy, then of course he will go to Paradise if his intentions were pure, and solely for the sake of God. By the way, JIHAD does not mean war, or to kill. It means to ‘Strive and Stuggle’ for any good cause.

Display of wickedness to please some unknown entity make us wild.
Also any animal killer who gets disentisized can kill humans without much feelings.
( they lose the fear of blood and insensitivity to other persons crying and suffering)

Eating beef or goat is the same ,so mutton eaters accusing of beef eater is hypocracy .

If anybody kills an animal for meat ,they should do it with mercy , I think the traditional muslim way is that.
I have seen them slaughtering chicken without aggression. It was not disturbing to see.

Do your sacrifices behind close doors ,don’t waste meat, do it without arousing others disgust and anger.
.
I also dispise Hindu peoples self mutilation rituals to please gods .

We all need to grow up and be more compassionate wise humans to share this planet and coexist.
PEACE to all.

I think there is no problem in animal sacruficing during Haj festival as long as it is done according to the Islamic law which should not offend non muslims. How many animals are slaugtered in Sri Lanka for human consumption. Senior policians arouse these issues to gain political advantage but not for their religous believes. Which is more humane – to tie a human to a tree or to sacrifice an animal for religous purposes? It is better for Sri Lankans to get rid of these type of hypocrits out of the parliament than worrying about these petty issues.

Thanks gunadasagamage for your thoughfull comments. Human beings are breeding like insects and killing innocent animals like cows and goats to satisfy their protien needs as well as they taste buds. They are using out of date religious theories to continue their exploitation of animals and infilicting unimaginalbe cruetly to these gentle animals. Think if there was a species which is more intelligent than us, the human beings, and if they take our children and slaughter them “lambs” and “beacons” the human adults as “beefs” in the name of religion or business, how would we feel? Would we be happy to see us being slaughtered and eaten by another species? Won’t we have fears of pain and death? Think from another angle to understand this long going inhumane act. I think killing of innocent vegitarian eating animals is as bad as murder! We are doing this with so many excuses, and it is the worst shameful act of humanity!

‘Allahu Akbar’ meaning ‘The God is great.’
Muslims believe that ‘there is no God but Allah.’
And Allah has unlimited power, unlimited knowledge and is every where at the same time.
Muslims say Adam is the first Prophet and Abraham, the Jewish man that first talked about the ‘One God’ concept is also a Prophet.
Muslims also say Muhammad, a non Jew is the last Prophet of Allah.
Muslims believe Koran is the word of Allah, pray five times a day to Allah and fight jihad to go to please Allah and go to his heaven.
Koran demand Muslims to trust Muslims only and not to trust Jews and Christians and never to allow them even near their holy Kabba and kill them or made them to pay religious tax because Abraham’s true decedents, Jews and his followers.
Christians do not believe Muhammad is a Prophet of Abraham’s God.d of lesson.
End of lesson.
Leela

‘Allahu Akbar’ meaning ‘The God is great.’
Muslims believe that ‘there is no God but Allah.’
And Allah has unlimited power, unlimited knowledge and is every where at the same time.
Muslims say Adam is the first Prophet and Abraham, the Jewish man that first talked about the ‘One God’ concept is also a Prophet.
Muslims also say Muhammad, a non Jew is the last Prophet of Allah.
Muslims believe Koran is the word of Allah, pray five times a day to Allah and fight jihad to go to please Allah and go to his heaven.
Koran demand Muslims to trust Muslims only and not to trust Jews and Christians and never to allow them even near their holy Kabba and kill them or made them to pay religious tax because Abraham’s true decedents, Jews and his followers.
Christians do not believe Muhammad is a Prophet of Abraham’s God.d of lesson.
End of lesson one of basic facts.
Leela

Leela, you should go to a slaughter house with your loved ones to see the horror the gentle animals go through in the name of religion and industry when they are murdered against their wishes. If you were one of them think what sort of emotions you will go through? I’m not against any religion I’m only against the cruel acts of humans in the name of religon!!! I hope one day there will be a law in this world banning the killing of animals for their corpses i.e. for animals’ dead bodies!!!.

perhaps you need to recall that even budhhah died after eating wild-bore.

perhaps your people better stop eating chicken, fish, etc as well before pointing at others.

killing in the name of religion. where?
Palestine is a nation captured by Jews from west and Russia and killing innocent Muslims. Iraq and Afghanistan were invaded by christian American and European for oil and killing innocent Muslims. it is Hindus who killed the innocent Muslims in Gujarat in the name of religion. it is Buddhist who killed Tamils in 83 riots in sri lanka in the name of religion and race and still killing many Muslims in Myanmar. yah, at the end call Muslims those who fight the oppression as terrorist.

meat eating is part of food chain and there are animal call carnivorous and herbivorous. its part of the chain that carnivorous eating the herbivorous. it not just Muslims even Jews, christian and many other faith eating this; in short 90% human eating meat. non of you can stop this just because some baseless philosophy say so. sri lanka is a Buddhist majority country and not a Buddhist only country. perhaps it has to be understood that here all are migrants from india and other parts and so do their religion.

Just because other bad things occur it doesn’t create an excuse to do more evil does it? That doesn’t do anything to help injustice. Similarly, if humans are superior to animals why are you using the argument that because others do it, it must be correct? In fact the opposite is often true. I often think it telling that humans have a choice in this as in many other issues- we can be vegetarian and meat eaters and have the teeth and bodily systems for both. So to deny oneself meat does you no harm, indeed it has been proven many times to be far more healthy, avoids violence and pain for animals whose lives are brutally taken against their wills and is environmentally far better for our planet. The only convincing argument for eating meat is admitting greed, this is at least honest, if morally pretty hideous.

Eddy

What a lovely and compassionate human being you are. I agree completely. Using our power against the helpless innocent is sickening to see and I am often ashamed to be human when I see such sickening cruelty for no reason but greed and desire.

Some never change, all they have to do is spread hatred over Muslims.Perhaps, these sick people should understand that they cannot overpower muslims no matter what they do, also if they don’t even know Jews do not believe in Jesus and they say he was a baseborn and a liar. This simply shows the partiality they have over muslims.

We Muslims respect both mosses and Jesus as prophet of Allah and we still believe that Jesus foretold about Mohamed. We don’t believe the New Testament claim of st. Paul the Jesus is god and no reason to believe a person not even seen the Jesus but claim as his disciple.
We believe that bible is not purely god’s word and it was changed by men for their own advantage. We must remember that the New Testament was canonized in the year 325 at the Council of Naecia where 27 books were selected by a majority vote, of course in that congregation the majority was of those who believed in the ‘Trinity’ and other pagan conceptions. Those who represented the true church were a small minority and though they vehemently opposed all abominations, they were on pain of torture and death, forced into silence. The Bishop of Rome, the head of the majority church,had the Emperor Constantine at his back to support him. Few dared oppose the Bishop and the Emperor

Still we believe that by researching the bible properly we can find some clue about a prophet after Jesus which certainly be the prophet Mohamed. for example

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” (Jhon 1:19-21)

Now when the john the Baptist was question by jew as above. Jews were expecting three at that time.
1.Elijah
2.Christ
3.The prophet

We know Elijah and we know Christ? I ask all my Christian friends who is this “the prophet” Jews were waiting for after Jesus the messiah? Isn’t the same person jesus for told as comforter? Which book testify the prophet of allah better than quran and which person testified all prophets before jesus more than Mohamed?

Finding the truth and believing it is your responsibility. Get to know the truth by right sources. Even Jesus will be seen as devil if sources are incorrect. These are the analysis by a mathematician Dr.Garry miller. He got it right as the source is right.

Muslims believe that there is only ONE God, and it is this same God who created every living and non-living thing that exists. Islam advocates peaceful co-existence with fellow human beings, belonging to all religions.
JIHAD in Arabic means ‘to strive, or struggle’. This does not mean ‘going to war’ or ‘killing one another.
Our Prophet Muhammad has stated that, ‘THE BEST JIHAD IS STRIVING AGAINST ONES OWN EVIL INCLINATIONS’.
But when the enemies of Islam fought against the Prophet and his followers only because they said that there is only ‘ONE GOD’, and worshipped HIM ALONE, permission from God came to the Muslims to fight against the enemies in self defence. This is another form of striving and struggling, and hence this was also called as JIHAD. When a student is studying day and night for an exam, he/she is also doing JIHAD( meaning STRIVE AND STUGGLE).
But when you look at the world today, there are many wars being fought by muslims, and against muslims. Most of these wars are politically motivated, and has very little to do with ISLAM. ALLAH says in the Quran, that killing one person without any justifiable reasons is like killing the entire human kind, and saving one persons life is like saving al Mankind.
Islam also enjoins kindness towards animals. At the same time God has that that he has created some animals to serve Mankind, and for lawful food. Therefore we have to show Mercy to the animals that we slaughter, and do it in the least painful manner.

Muslims believe that there is only ONE God, and it is this same God who created every living and non-living thing that exists. When we say ALLAH, it means ‘THE GOD’ derived from AL ILAH, which means ‘The God’ in Arabic. Islam advocates peaceful co-existence with fellow human beings, belonging to all religions. We believe that God sent Messengers from time to time, to guide Mankind. ADAM,NOAH, ABRAHAM,SOLOMON,MOSES, and JESUS ARE SOME OF THEM. We Muslims respect them all. MUHAMMAD is the Last and final of those Messengers.

JIHAD in Arabic means ‘to strive, or struggle’. This does not mean ‘going to war’ or ‘killing one another.

Our Prophet Muhammad has stated that, ‘THE BEST JIHAD IS STRIVING AGAINST ONES OWN EVIL INCLINATIONS’.
But when the enemies of Islam fought against the Prophet and his followers only because they said that ”there is only ONE GOD’, and worship HIM ALONE”, permission from God came to the Muslims to fight against the enemies in self defence. This is another form of striving and struggling, and hence this was also called as JIHAD. When a student is studying day and night for an exam, he/she is also doing JIHAD( meaning STRIVE AND STUGGLE).
But when you look at the world today, there are many wars being fought by muslims, and against muslims. Most of these wars are politically motivated, and has very little to do with ISLAM. ALLAH says in the Quran, that killing one person without any justifiable reasons is like killing the entire human kind, and saving one persons life is like saving al Mankind.
Islam also enjoins kindness towards animals. At the same time God has said that he has created some animals to serve Mankind, and for lawful food. Therefore we have to show Mercy to the animals that we slaughter, and do it in the least painful manner.

so ranjith when you are going to india. dont tell all the hela story, if you take mahabaratha, the book of hindus its clear that sri lanka was part of south india and not north india, if you try to justify your hela language you need to justify why Divehi the maldivian language is very close to sinhela, the language of vijaya who came from north india. have you forget that his women falks went to maldives which justifies the mahavansa story that vijaya is from india. may be its high time for you to go to indian forest where sinhabahu came from. there you can practice you religion which also came to this country from india. indian people can go to india and practice their north indian religion.

This is the most disgusting thing I have heard. Stop using the name of my country to spread hate about her. 1983 was one incident of politically backed hate. To call our country one of mass murderes, due to our cuture- you have no idea of our history or our people. You ought to read more about our people than what you hear from foriegn media. Our culture is rich. It is one based on agriculture, the village and the temple. It has a long history of non- violence, which has been marred by one incident. Don’t judge my country without knowing it.

The very people who are talking and campaigning to stop animal sacrifice and trying to intervene in other religeous practices are the ones guilty of mass murder, Tamils in 2009 and now even Sighalese. What is going on at the moment is nothing but an attempt to cover up the guilt. They hide behind the mask of religeon to resort to all sorts of dirty games. After all trading in cattle for slaughter takes place under the very nose of these campaigning politicians and they proberbly have a hand in it too. It is easy to take the Singhalese for a ride when religeon or the Sangaya vahanse is displayed. If we have a democracy all people should be able to practice their faith without hindrens. If it is allright for you to eat mutton and chicken and not beaf….., be it. But let others eat what they want.
“Epa epa kiri bonnata mas ammage”.

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